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Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot by Erik John Bertel
Fiction
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There is something in the jungle of Irma Flores that has terrorized Sarah for years. As a scientist she needs to know what it is and by confronting this evil she is about to be awakened from her nightmare. She doesn’t know it but she will also begin her first faltering steps toward enlightenment. Along the way, she will have to contend with a strange dwarf people, pirates, corporate raiders and an obstinate lover. Her road to nirvana will be a raw and bruising journey that is certain to be both entertaining and moving for the listener.
The media eagerly made the startling announcement about the unique hobbit fossil find and the existence of hobbit human relatives on Flores Island 16,000 years ago, prehistoric survivors that seemingly went extinct just a few short years ago. Only, the scientists were dead wrong! They are still alive today and two American scientists are going to discover them and unwittingly they will introduce this tribe of small, archaic people to the ultimate modern predator: humanity.
These three-foot tall bipeds are not the Hobbits of the JRR Tolkien's stories, but a small tribe of dwarf prehistoric people, Homo Floresiensis, living in seeming isolation for nearly a half million years on the Indonesian tropical island of Irma Flores. In their unrelenting quest for knowledge, Sarah and Richard inadvertently expose these innocents to the onslaught of the modern world including corporate raiders, Indonesian pirates and ardent religious zealots. In the process of discovery and befriending these ancient people, Sarah and Richard must survive a serious clash of divergent personalities while rediscovering their own humanity and need for love. This is their adventure, combining a clash of cultures, religious ardor with the oldest stories of all: the meaning of friendship and true love.
This as a rousing, humorous adventure novel with serious undertones about our very definition of humanity, and how we treat the other sentient creatures that share our small planet. Many elements within the novel have a strong connection with the topical issues of today ranging from Creationism, the environment, stem cell research and finally to the voracious appetite of our ever expanding consumer economy. Moreover, the so-called Hobbit people described within the novel, locally known by Flores natives as the Ebu Gogo, are being searched for by scientists in Indonesia as we speak. This story is so gripping that both "Sixty Minutes" on CBS and National Geographic ran numerous specials on the controversial Flores Island fossil find.
The Children God Forgot is the first novel in the Flores Girl Trilogy and the second novel is nearing completion!
Warning: this adventure novel contains adult themes, numerous naked hobbits, some sexuality, adult language, a dose of graphic violence and a complete disdain for most authority figures.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives 3.0 United States License.
Audio Quality: 
Out of 29 ratings
Narration Quality:
Out of 29 ratings
Writing Quality:
Out of 29 ratings
Overall Rating:
Out of 29 ratings
By: Erik John Bertel
Over 70,000 downloads of the podcast and I want to thank your support. Also, the free eBook novel is now available to read on your iPhone and BlackBerry. Just go to Wattpad.com, load the free application for your smart phone and then just go Wattcode 125445!By: Erik John Bertel
Robert, thanks for the comment and I'm glad you liked the book. Part of the problem is that this is the first book in a trilogy, so yes, there are going to be a few points left unanswered. But hey life is like that too and if I gave away all of the answers why would you follow the second and third novel? That said, I did point to "the answer" in the first novel, assuming there is one.By: Robert Reppert
This was an interesting book but it ended fairly flat I thought. About half the book had some real interesting sociology, science and philosophical points but then it turns into an island adventure story and never does tie up the aforementioned points. Too many questions are left unanswered but could fill a sequel. There are also many extreme stereotypes but I think that was intentional to represent extreme categories of these factions (science, religion, and business). I liked the podiobook and I listened to it non-stop. It just seemed to meander as to what kind of book it was a lot.
Chapters
| Title | Description | Date Created |
| Sarah's Nightmare (9.72 MB) | Sarah revisits the mysterious island were she made her initial horrific discovery. | May 25, 2006 |
| Sarah's Promise (10.18 MB) | In the middle of the night, Sarah wrestles with her conscious as to how she should proceed with her discovery | May 25, 2006 |
| Richard's Nightmare (10.32 MB) | Richard learns of the incredible Flores Island discovery in the newspaper. In the process of researching the find, he revisits the events that have lead to his professional and personal decline. | May 25, 2006 |
| Inspiration Goes for a Run (20.11 MB) | Richard goes for a run to clear his head in an effort to remember the name of a strange girl with an even stranger story. | May 25, 2006 |
| The Rest Will Follow (21.17 MB) | Richard visits Sarah at the university primate lab while pressing her for an opportunity to join her research team to the mystery island. | May 25, 2006 |
| Nobody of Consequence (15.83 MB) | Sarah makes plans for a research trip to Flores with Professor Brightman but fate intervenes. | Jun 11, 2006 |
| Corporate Citizen (27.39 MB) | Ruthless elements within a large pharmaceutical company make their own plans for the Ebu. | Jun 24, 2006 |
| Higher Calling (22.26 MB) | Unbeknownst to Reggie and Bill, Karl, the head lab assistant at GenTech, is busily sabotaging the pharmaceutical giant's controversial stem cell research. | Jul 1, 2006 |
| The Boss (20.62 MB) | Sarah and Richard put their expedition together and travel to Flores Island in search of the Ebu Gogo. | Jul 20, 2006 |
| All Work and No Play (18.33 MB) | Before leaving for Sarah's mysterious island Sarah and Richard head out for a night on the town in Flores. | Aug 2, 2006 |
| Pirates of the Flores Sea (21.9 MB) | As they begin to set out for Sarah's island, Sarah's and Richard's boat is boarded by dangerous high-sea pirates. | Aug 28, 2006 |
| Resolve (24.78 MB) | After losing everything to the pirates, Sarah and Richard face their own personal failure and decide whether or not they should return to the states. | Sep 24, 2006 |
| Discovery (23.91 MB) | Sarah and Richard begin their exploration of the island in search of the Ebu. | Oct 31, 2006 |
| The Wait (20.29 MB) | Sarah and Richard wait for the Ebu at a small pond. | Dec 3, 2006 |
| By the Sea (21.53 MB) | Sarah makes a risky first contact with the Ebu. | Jan 14, 2007 |
| The Princess Meets Flo (28.3 MB) | While observing the troop, Sarah forms a friendship with one of the Ebu that she names Flo. | Feb 11, 2007 |
| Weakness (17.96 MB) | Sarah is stricken by a life threatening illness that triggers a strange personal odyssey for her. | Mar 4, 2007 |
| The Cost of Weakness (36.96 MB) | A senseless act of violence challenges Sarah and her tenuous relationships with the inhabitants of the island. | Apr 20, 2007 |
| Christian Soldier (21.27 MB) | Reggies discovers the island of the Ebu and begins his assault but not before Karl makes his move. | May 13, 2007 |
| New Friends (15.65 MB) | Sarah's relationships with both Richard and Flo take a surprising turn. | Jun 22, 2007 |
| The Guardian (11.87 MB) | Karl's fever starts to takes a toll on his sanity as his efforts to contact the Ebu becomes a religious quest for him | Jul 27, 2007 |
| The Guardian Meets the Lab Rat (14.09 MB) | Bill is presuaded by Reggie to meet with Karl. | Aug 25, 2007 |
| The Capture (34.48 MB) | Sarah and Richard must make their escape after witnessing Reggie's brutal capture of the Ebu. | Oct 21, 2007 |
| An Unlikely Ally (37.69 MB) | Reggie begins a reign of terror on the island that will leave nobody, including the Ebu, safe from his murderous schemes. Reggie's only challenge will be a visit from the biggest murderer in human history. | Nov 18, 2007 |
| Your Hands are Stained with Blood. (36.5 MB) | As death and chaos overtakes the island, Sarah and Richard try to escape Reggie. | Jan 2, 2008 |
| Exodus - The Final Chapter (52.11 MB) | Sarah and Richard must fight their way off the island in this final installment of the podcast. | Feb 12, 2008 |